House debate on redistricting set for Thursday

The Texas House is poised to vote on redistricting plans Thursday in what is set to be the final hurdle before Republicans send Gov. Rick Perry the trio of elections maps he called on lawmakers to pass at the onset of the special session.

After an awkward miscalculation a day earlier that led to a bill containing state House maps failing to pass, the House redistricting committee approved three Senate redistricting bills in a matter of minutes Tuesday.

The bills include political boundaries for the state House and Senate and U.S. House of Representatives drawn by a San Antonio federal court last year. The boundaries were passed unchanged — exactly what Perry asked for when he called the special session to make court-ordered interim maps permanent.

And even though a flurry of amendments from Democrats is expected when the bills hit the House floor, don’t expect any to gain traction (all amendments offered by Democrats so far in the Senate and House committee have been shot down, mostly on party line votes). Darby said Tuesday he’s yet to hear an alternative plan offered by Democrats that “addresses a legal deficiency and that solves a legal problem.”

“I’ve heard generalities. I’ve heard broad-based statements,” Darby told reporters after Tuesday’s committee hearing. “We still have not seen any specific allegations of a deficiency in the current maps, nor a legal remedy to fix that.”

Just a day earlier, Darby’s committee stumbled when it failed to muster enough votes to pass a House bill outlining political boundaries for the lower chamber. The bill garnered nine Republicans votes in favor, one shy of the 10 needed to successfully clear the 19-member redistricting panel (several Republicans were away when Darby called the vote).

The committee adjourned Monday with that miscount lingering, but was able to overcome it by passing the Senate version.

At the beginning of Tuesday’s hearing, State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, attempted to prevent the committee from taking up the Senate’s identical and already-passed proposal outlining the same House political boundaries that failed to pass Monday.

Thompson used a parliamentary inquiry to try and derail the House maps from coming up for a vote again, saying it would flout lower chamber rules that don’t allow for a failed measure to be reconsidered.

Darby quickly shot down Thompson’s inquiry, arguing that the maps did not fail — they simply “did not achieve the amount of votes necessary to pass out of committee.”

“This is not a defeated measure,” he said.

Darby also offered up a mea culpa for Monday’s miscount.

“It’s my fault. I made a mistake,” he said. “I should have counted and made sure everybody was in their seats.”

He added: “It’s like herding cats” trying to keep committee members in check for votes.